Scottish care regulator publishes review of its first three years
By News Scotland, , , ,

The Care Inspectorate, Scotland’s social care scrutiny and improvement body, has published a review of the first three years of its work.

The organisation was set up in April 2011 and has since carried out more than 30,000 inspections of care services, complaint investigations and registrations.

By law, all of Scotland’s 14,000 care services, including care homes for older people, nurseries and childminders, must be registered with the Care Inspectorate.

The report shows that most services in Scotland have improved since the Care Inspectorate was created, but also highlights that there are important improvements which remain to be made, so that everyone in Scotland can access high-quality, safe and compassionate care.

Welcoming the publication, Paul Edie, chair of the Care Inspectorate said: “A core principle for the Care Inspectorate is that we are not just an inspection body.

“We are rigorous in our inspection of services, but our job is not just to comment on the quality of care; it is to help care services improve when that is required. Indeed, we are statutorily charged with the general duty of furthering improvement in the quality of social services.  

“Almost everyone will use a care service at some point in their life. We regulate and support improvement in care services for people from cradle to grave. This means the work we do assumes a special responsibility, because we do it on behalf of virtually the entire population of Scotland.

“While the evidence in this report shows satisfactory progress across most services types over the period of the review, we will be relentless in our pursuit of further improvement and will not hesitate to use our regulatory powers where the quality of care provided is unsatisfactory or creates harm or the potential for harm.

“An enormous thanks must go to the staff who work in care services across Scotland.

“They dedicate their lives to helping others, supporting them in times of need and liberating their potential to live happy, fulfilled lives. I hope this report is of interest to them, as well as to many other people.”

Karen Reid (pictured), chief executive of the Care Inspectorate added: “Overall, the quality of care in Scotland is good and rising, however there remains small pockets of unacceptable weak and unsatisfactory provision.

“There are many outstanding and sector-leading examples. That said, there is a small, albeit significant, number of services where improvements are not sustained and the quality of outcomes for people using those services are consequentially limited. That is unacceptable and will continue to be the focus of our scrutiny and improvement work.

“It should be stressed, however, that taken as a whole, the findings from this review demonstrate that despite the presence of financial and demographic pressures, social care in Scotland can demonstrate improvement and sustained good levels of performance in a number of important areas.  

“This is particularly evident in the performance of registered social care services, reflected throughout this report.”